Rate Terminator Salvation

[Joker]

I'm pretty much with Bullgrit on this one.

I was hoping for something gritty and post-apocalyptic that would induce a sense of inevitable extinction. A feeling of facing a enemy that is truly dangerous.

Instead we get incompetent machines with fire-wire connections for easy reprogramming.

Le Temps du Loup got this feeling across. Now I just need to see it with Terminators.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

I agree with Bullgrit, but I think he still holds this film in higher regard regard than me.

I gave this film, a 1-star rating, something I rarely do. Even despite best effort by Sam Worthington, I found this film to be rife with inconsistenices, incoherent, and near-unwatchable, an execrable addition to a franchise that should never have been revied without someone helming it who has a familiarity with the universe AND a unique vision to add to that universe. This film felt like an excercise in "groupthink." (YMMV, of course.)

More, this movie is, to me, a prime example of what plagues many movies made within the last two decades or so; it was an absolute triumph of style over substance.

The main problem? The film lacked the one defining quality that made Terminator and T2 stand-out from the standard "genre" movie: heart and emotionality. I lacked a real, tangible connection to any of the characters. (As an aside, I thought Sam Worthington stole this movie from Christian Bale; I found CB to be rather one-note in this film.)

A secondary problem? There was also no sense of "urgency" or "threat" to this film. (A problem I also find with the TV series.) Since this movie takes place prior to John sending Kyle back in the first place, we KNOW that neither John nor Kyle are in danger of dying, and [stellar performance aside] I wasn't invested enough in the new character to care if he lived or died.

And I gave up trying to deconstruct the timeline around the time T3 came out, but even so, this film seems to contradict not only itself, but the franchise in general. (Does the phrase "There is no fate but what we make" even mean anything anymore?? So, they BLOW UP Skynet Central [the big bad of the franchise], and yet John notes in the final lines "We won this battle, but the war rages on".... HUH??)

I think the other reason I have such negative feelings towards this move (aside from my "style over substance" rant a few paragraphs above) is that it could have been so much more than it was. [I'm not gonna dwell on the plethora of inconsistencies that litter this movie and trash the franchise; rather I'll point out some "could-have-been's" that might have saved this movie.])

In the opening crawl, they noted [paraphrase] "Some call John Connor a false prophet." And yet we NEVER see that in this movie; everyone loves him! What if they had made it so that Marcus was potentially the "savior" of the human race? (Yes, I know you'd piss off some purists, but it would be a viable new diretion to take this dying franchise.) What if he had followers from amongst the remants of the human race? Then you could have Kyle torn between his loyalties to John [Bringing the "fate" aspect back into play in a real way], and Marcus, who he actually bonded with, and who saved his life multiple times.

Sorry about the rant, everyone, but this movie totally affronted me to the point where I was literally left babblling at the end of it, it was so bad.

 

[Krug]

In the opening crawl, they noted [paraphrase] "Some call John Connor a false prophet." And yet we NEVER see that in this movie; everyone loves him! What if they had made it so that Marcus was potentially the "savior" of the human race? (Yes, I know you'd piss off some purists, but it would be a viable new diretion to take this dying franchise.) What if he had followers from amongst the remants of the human race? Then you could have Kyle torn between his loyalties to John [Bringing the "fate" aspect back into play in a real way], and Marcus, who he actually bonded with, and who saved his life multiple times.

Actually the guys on the sub didn't think he was a saviour... but still, it was hardly a film with depth.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

Actually the guys on the sub didn't think he was a saviour... but still, it was hardly a film with depth.

No, but they mostly respected and/or admired him; they certainly didn't demonize him. They didn't necessarily buy into the "Messiah" thing, assuming they're even AWARE of it. Which is another gripe; WHO knows about the "Messiah" deal? It sounded from the crawl that it was pretty wide-spread, but I didnt't get that feel from the movie itself....)

This move should have focused entirely (or almost entirely on) Marcus; with the movie set where in the timeline it is, there's WAY too much to explain when John Connor enters into the picture for him to be only a minor part of the movie.

 

[Hejdun]

It was a decent action movie. You seriously have to turn your brain off while watching it though. Spoilers

For instance, how on earth do the humans still have air force bases and aircraft, and helicopters? It's been ages since Judgment Day, and somehow the humans still have enough A-10s that they just casually fly patrols? Why were the robots hoarding human prisoners? Why, if Kyle Reese was so important, didn't they just kill him as soon as they identified him? Why were there only about 3 Terminators guarding their entire headquarters? Why were there random little fires literally EVERYWHERE? Why are the machines more willing to nuke their own research labs than the human bases?

The movie would've been much cooler if they came up with a reasonable back-story to fill in the time gap between Judgment day and the beginning of the film. For instance, how the resistance manages to have those air strips and A-10s and Blackhawks. More about what John Connor's position is, and what sort of influence he has in the resistance.

 

[wingsandsword]

The movie would've been much cooler if they came up with a reasonable back-story to fill in the time gap between Judgment day and the beginning of the film. For instance, how the resistance manages to have those air strips and A-10s and Blackhawks. More about what John Connor's position is, and what sort of influence he has in the resistance.

At least in T3 they kind of hinted at this when Arnie's Terminator said that through General Brewster, John Connor is supposed to link up with the remnants of the US Military.

While having enough spare parts and fuel (with no real refineries nor significant factories) to operate significant quantities of A-10's and so on is a major issue, at least they kind of set up earlier that the beginning of the war would be military remnants against Skynet. Not that I would have expected it to last well over a decade past that point though. . .

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

While having enough spare parts and fuel (with no real refineries nor significant factories) to operate significant quantities of A-10's and so on is a major issue, at least they kind of set up earlier that the beginning of the war would be military remnants against Skynet. Not that I would have expected it to last well over a decade past that point though. . .

Granted, trying to think about this is doomed to failure, but here's what I've come up with before suffering Sanity loss:

1) Skynet started out with an automatic factory, and didn't have bases all over the world to operate from. While there was a lot of shock and confusion after Judgment Day, it took time for Skynet to spread out, which was also used by the humans to organize and resist.

2) With the general drawdown in US and Russian warhead inventories, it's entirely possible some potential targets were missed, such as a National Guard airfield where they kept A-10s and such. This would also explain why they're using, say, UH-1s instead of UH-60s and such.

Also note that it goes for quite a bit longer post-Salvation. Skynet doesn't have beam weapons except on its big-ass mecha, whereas we see in 1 and 2 that beam weapons are common even among the human resistance. Presumably, the plasma rifles are pretty easy to make and maintain.

Brad

 

[ssampier]

B- on American letter grade scale

Silly things

Dialog. I didn't particularly care much about Marcus. He said he was looking for someone. Was he looking for John Conner or something at Skynet? Not quite clear on that. Obviously his programming made him go back to Skynet, obviously....

Plus, John Conner and Blair Williams trusted him way too soon.

Skynet

Sure looked nice and clean for a facility used by machines.

I liked the CGI Arnold though (spliced from real Arnold of the other movies).

[pedantic computer geek]
I would assume there are massive computer networks to centralize communication with skynet central? How many billions of gigabits of information that must flow from all around the world to make this happen?

You think the resistance would merely find the data lines and destroy them. Then each machine or cell would be working by itself; not receiving centralized information.

Hopefully they destroyed the "big brother-sister" on the wall" (ala Apple's 1984 ad).
[/pedantic]

 

[Mark]

I gave this film, a 1-star rating, something I rarely do.

Can you give some examples of other 1-star and 2-star movies in recent memory? I'm interested in getting a handle on your rating system.